Strapwork is a form of ornament made up of interlaced or scrolling bands that resemble cut and curled strips of leather or metal. It appears in carved wood, moulded plaster, stone, metalwork, ceramics, textiles and printed designs, and it is one of the most recognisable decorative motifs of the Northern Renaissance.
The style originated in the Italian-led decoration of the palace of Fontainebleau in the 1530s and spread across northern Europe through engraved pattern books, especially those published in Antwerp. In England it became a defining feature of Elizabethan and Jacobean decoration, seen in elaborate plaster ceilings, carved oak overmantels, panelling, chimneypieces, funeral monuments and the cresting of great houses. Strapwork was revived in the nineteenth century as part of the Elizabethan and Jacobean revival styles, and Victorian carved oak furniture often shows it in a more mechanical form. When assessing a piece, crispness and depth of carving, the vigour of the design and evidence of age in the surface help distinguish original seventeenth-century work from later revival pieces. Strapwork ceilings and panelling remain treasured elements of historic interiors and are much admired in restoration projects.
